Irving Park Community Food Pantry * Providing Food to Our Neighbors for 25 Years
As our Pantry observes twenty five years of serving our community, we look back at how it all began. The following reflections were written by Nora Byrne, a board member and volunteer who has been involved with the Pantry throughout its existence.
Last week at Bible Study we were talking about the pantry and how it began. That got me to thinking about the first year, 1984. All the churches in the area were getting more and more requests for food. The Methodist Church already had a pantry of sorts and they had a government cheese and butter program in place. (Remember that.) The need was getting to be more than individual churches could handle, so a group got together in April of that year to discuss pooling resources and organzing a pantry. Coral Prebble, a student intern at this church, asked me if I would go as representative of this church, with NO OBLIGATION for future meetings.
I looked up the first Annual Report from1984. Following are some exerpts:
"In April of this year [1984], a re-organization began, to enable us to better serve the growing hunger needs of the community... Then on June 11, officers were elected and committee assignments were made. Many of us left that meeting feeling completely overwhelmed and totally inadequate for the task ahead. The pantry was almost empty, the treasury was small ($345). "By the end of July, we had...no food in the pantry and no money in the treasury. In August & September, we received no cheese or butter... Our co-ordinator [a volunteer] was unable to give the time needed. We put out a call for help to our churches, and got it--in money, food and volunteers." It goes on to say that we had a spaghetti dinner fund raiser in September and by the end of October had over $1,000 in our treasury. In November, we hired our first director and "everything improved immediately."
Notice the date--1984. This means that the Irving Park Food Pantry opened its doors 25 years ago this June. A lot has changed. We now serve over 400 families each month, which is more than double 1984, and the numbers keep increasing. We have a healthy treasury and many wonderful volunteers. We are known in the industry to be one of the best run pantries on the Northwest side of Chicago.
It is amazing what a small group of "overwhelmed" Christians can do when they see a need and work together for the good of all. I am proud to be a part of this group, as we should all be no matter how small or large the contribution to the whole. As Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us all."
Nora Byrne